


New World

by lakesinstillness



Category: BUCK-TICK
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Confusion, Fluff and Angst, Names, Parallel Universes, brief references to bread, crackfic, this only makes sense to like 3 people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-08 04:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19863661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lakesinstillness/pseuds/lakesinstillness
Summary: Yutaka wakes up one morning and thinks everything is fine, but soon finds out that something is very wrong.





	New World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [direngrey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/direngrey/gifts).



> For @bucktiick
> 
> Okay so um. When I decided to write a fic for your birthday I had 3 ideas and a lot of time on my hands so I just wrote all 3 but then I ended up spoiling the surprise with the Su/Gackt one whoops. So it's a good thing I wrote 3 fics so the surprise wasn't totally ruined! Happy birthday bestie :D
> 
> This fic uses names for the B-T members that only a few people know because it's an inside joke but I think it's kind of funny so hopefully even people who don't get the joke will enjoy it.

Yutaka woke up that morning to the sound of his alarm. They were going to start working on Buck-Tick’s next album, so he had to get up early. However, it had been a few weeks since he had woken up that early, so he found it difficult to get up. He tried to go to bed early the night before, heading for bed around 11:30 instead of his usual 2AM, but he found it difficult to sleep. So, he just had to hope he would be able to get up that morning.

Once he was finally awake, he checked the time on his alarm clock. “7:47AM,” it read.

“Shit!” he exclaimed as he turned the clock off and jumped out of bed. He set his alarm for 7AM; did he really hit snooze that many times? He didn’t remember waking up for any of those alarms, but apparently he had. He didn’t know why he was rushing, either; he didn’t have to meet the others until 9AM, and chances are one or two of them would be late anyway. Still, instead of having the full breakfast he planned on having, he only had a cup of coffee and a slice of toast, which he held in his mouth as he ran to the car.

There was some traffic on the way to the studio, but he made it there a little bit early. He saw Imai and Atsushi’s cars in the parking lot, but not Hide or Toll’s. Relieved that he wasn’t the last to show up, he went up to the studio.

“Hey guys!” he exclaimed when he saw the other two.

“Oh hi Yuya,” Atsushi replied. “How have you been?”

Yutaka chuckled a little at Atsushi’s response. “I’m good. How have you been, Atsushi? You sound tired.”

Imai and Atsushi just stared at Yutaka for a moment before Atsushi responded: “You seem tired too.”

“Anyways, Yuya,” Imai said, “have you heard from your brother? He’s late.”

“Oh, Toll? He’s--.”

“You mean Roll?”

“What?”

“Jose’s late too,” Atsushi continued, completely ignoring Yutaka’s confusion. “Wonder where those two are.”

“Wait,” Yutaka replied. “Who is Jose?”

Atsushi laughed. “Come on, Yuya. Stop teasing us.”

Yutaka didn’t know how to respond. Why were Atsushi and Imai calling all of his bandmates, including himself, different names? Was Jose Hide? “Imai, what’s going on?”

“You mean Imani,” Atsushi said.

“Anyways, Sooshi,” Imai--or Imani, apparently--responded, “Jose told me he would be late. And as I was saying, Yuya, have you heard from Roll?”

Yutaka figured Atsushi and Imai were just playing games with him, and he didn’t want them to have the satisfaction of seeing him confused. “No, I haven’t. Anyways, I have to use the bathroom.”  
In the bathroom, Yutaka took out his phone, and went to his contacts. One by one he saw them: “Imani,” “Jose,” “Roll,” “Sooshi.” The numbers were the same; only the names were different. His name appeared at the top of his phone: “Yuya.” He figured this was meaningless; if his bandmates were playing a prank on him, they could have just changed the contacts in his phone. He couldn’t think of a time when they would’ve had the chance, but that was what it had to be. Yutaka went onto the Fish Tank site next, and saw that the names were all different there as well. Fine, they could have changed the names on there too; maybe they got the fans to play along with this prank and he somehow hadn’t found out about it. So, he checked social media, specifically Twitter, since tweets can’t be edited. Even on tweets from days ago, the names were different.

And that was when he realized an easy way to figure out whether this was a prank for sure. He took his wallet out of his pocket, and checked his driver’s license and credit cards. All of them said the same thing: “Higuchi Yuya.”

This wasn’t a prank. This was real. Yutaka--no, Yuya?--was sure of that. But he didn’t know what else this could be. Was he really so tired that he was hearing and seeing everything wrong? Was his memory failing him now that he was in his fifties, to the point that he would forget even--and seemingly only--his bandmates’, brother’s, and own name? Either way, he was scared, but he figured he would give it time. Maybe everything would work out eventually, or he would figure out what was going on. If not, he figured he would go see a doctor or do some research on the Internet. Someone ought to know what was going on with him. For now, though, he left the bathroom to meet up with his bandmates.

When he got out of the bathroom, both Hide and Toll were there. “Morning, Yuya,” Hide said.

“Hey, Hi--Jose,” he responded. “How have you been?”

“Fine. How about you?”

“Same.”

“Imani said you were acting strange earlier,” Toll said while resting his arm on Yutaka’s shoulder. “Is everything alright, Yuya?”

He was already shocked from seeing his name wrong on his license, but hearing his own brother say the wrong name made it seem even more scary, even more real. “Yeah. I think I’m just a little tired. I almost slept in today.”

“Alright. I think we’re all a little tired today, so we’ll gradually get into it. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Okay, thanks!’

For the next few hours, they went over a few of the songs that would be on the next album. Yutaka tried to act normal, but he couldn’t help but worry. Every time one of the members said someone’s name--someone’s incorrect name--and everyone had no reaction to it, he couldn’t help but think about it. His bandmates, his friends, of over thirty years all had the wrong names, and all knew him by a different name. His own brother, a man he had known his entire life, had a different name, and no one else thought anything of it. And he himself, who had always been called Yutaka, had suddenly been christened Yuya, and he was the only one who felt that his own name was incorrect.

The members mentioned other people that day, so he knew only their five names were different. But despite it only being those five names, the entire world felt wrong. He began to worry that this would be how the rest of his life would go, that he would be lost in this new world of “Roll” and “Yuya” and “Imani,” and would never find his way back to “Toll,” “Yutaka,” and “Imai.” That the men he previously referred to as “Atsushi” and “Hide,” would forever be “Sooshi” and “Jose.” How did Hide, a Japanese man, even end up with a Spanish name anyway? Why was Toll named after an English word for round objects, usually bread? These were the questions that filled Yutaka’s mind that day.

When they were done, Sooshi--Yutaka was starting to get used to the names, at least some of them--suggested they all get dinner together. Jose picked out a restaurant, and he, Sooshi, and Toll headed to the parking lot. However, Yutaka and Imani needed to use the bathroom first, so they went down to the parking lot together.

In the elevator, Yutaka began to think about the name swap again, until his thoughts were interrupted by Imai. “Oh yeah Yuya, isn’t that interview you did playing on the radio today?”

Due to everything he had gone through that day, Yutaka had completely forgotten about it. “Oh, yeah.”

“It should be playing soon. I’m going to listen to it in the car.”

“Thanks!”

Yutaka sat in his car for a moment, thinking about it. He was scared to listen to it, but it was like a car accident on the side of a highway. No matter how scary it was, he had to look, or in this case, listen. So on the way to the restaurant, he played the interview. Everything about it was familiar; it was prerecorded only a few days ago, so he remembered every conversation. That was, until he heard that voice, his own voice, bring up his members.

And he said all the wrong names.

Suddenly, this all felt even stranger. Even though he knew it was impossible to be a prank before, he still had hope that it was. But now, hearing himself, from only a few days ago, say those names, “Sooshi,” “Roll,” “Imani,” “Jose;” now, that he heard the interviewer say, “Yuya,” and heard his own complacency, he suddenly was fully aware that this was real. The names were wrong--but only wrong to him--and as far as he knew they always would be.

The interview ended just as he parked at the restaurant. He got out of his car, and felt like anything would bring him to tears. And as he walked up to the entrance, he saw Atsushi. “Yuya! Have you seen Imani?”

Yutaka couldn’t take it anymore. “WHO THE FUCK IS IMANI AND WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?” he shouted before running back to his car, wiping away the tears that were now streaming down his cheeks, and driving away.

On the car ride home, he got a call from Toll. He answered, but didn’t speak. He was tired of these fake names, and he really didn’t want to use or hear them.

“Yuya,” Roll said, “please tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing,” the bassist responded, “nothing at all.”

“Then why did you yell at Sooshi?”

He managed to hold it together once he got home, but now he was crying again. “Toll. I mean, Roll. Everything is wrong!”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just,” he paused for a moment, “everything is so wrong.”

“Okay. We’re on our way.”

“No, don’t come here. I don’t want to hear those names.”

“What names?”

“Just. Don’t use anybody’s names. Please.”

Toll took a moment before responding. “Okay. Whatever you need.”

At home, Yutaka laid on the couch until the other members showed up. Toll was the last one to get there, but when he did, his younger brother explained everything. That from the moment he got up that morning, all five members’ names were different. They encouraged him to go to bed, and told him they would figure it out in the morning. He did so, and they took turns watching him, making sure nothing else was wrong with him.

In the middle of the night, Yutaka woke up, and saw Atsushi looking over him. “Go back to sleep,” the vocalist whispered.

“Atsushi,” Yutaka replied.

“Yes?”

“That’s your name, right? Atsushi?”

Atsushi’s eyes lit up, which surprised Yutaka. He was expecting Atsushi to look confused or upset. “It doesn’t sound wrong to you?”

“No, that’s your name.”

Atsushi hugged Yutaka, and squeezed him so tightly that Yutaka almost winced. “Oh thank God you’re acting normal again! Should I get Toll?”

Yutaka was happy to hear his brother’s name said correctly, and was glad to have the hug he so desperately needed after everything he had been through, but he didn’t know what Atsushi meant by “acting normal again.” “No, not yet. Explain what’s going on.”

“It was the weirdest thing, Yuta. You just started freaking out, and told us we were all saying the wrong names. That you were Yuya, and I was Sooshi, and Hide was Jose for some reason. It was very strange and we were all worried about you.”

“What? No, that’s not what happened. You guys were all using those names. I was trying to tell you all that I’m Yutaka, and you’re Atsushi, and my brother’s Toll, but you were all using those weird names.”

“Oh.” Atsushi paused for a moment. “Imai did say something about alternate universes. I guess he was right. You and your weird-name-universe self must have switched universes yesterday for some reason.”

“I guess that must be it. Thank God I’m back!” He pulled Atsushi into another hug, squeezing even tighter than the vocalist did the first time.

Yutaka didn’t want the hug to end, but Atsushi had to get the other Buck-Tick members. He explained everything to them, never sparing a moment to use their names and prove to himself that he was back in the universe where everything made sense. He realized that he had taken something as simple as the members’ names, his brother’s name, his own name, for granted, and found a new appreciation for them. He had never been happier to know that his brother was, in fact, not named after bread.


End file.
